Courtney Vrablik

00:00I want to talk to you guys today about what chefs want and how do I know what chefs want? I know because Ron Trenier who's the owner at What Chefs Want started the company called Creation Gardens. With Creation Gardens he sat down a group of chefs in Louisville and he said what do you guys want? And they said they wanted more selection. They wanted to be able to split cases. They wanted to be able to order on Sunday. They wanted to be able to place an order every single day. And Ron said done. Those are the things that are going to help you succeed. Those are the things that we're going to do as a company. And that company has expanded and they've continued to grow but those principles have stayed the same. But now they've added the butchery which is hand-cut steaks. They have seafood through bluefin. They have specialty items, creation gardens, produce. They are expanding and doing so many amazing things for locally owned and operated restaurants that they are living today What Chefs Want and every day. Warehouse here in Nashville they're happy to help you visit them at whatchefswant.com. I also want to talk to you today about SuperSource. Now you've been hearing me talk about SuperSource for about a year and a half now and Jason Ellis over at SuperSource has been an amazing partner for us here at Nashville Restaurant Radio. He's just been amazing and you know why he's amazing because he actually cares about his customers. It's not a matter of hey look I just got to sell you chemicals. I got to get you in a dish machine lease. He has no contracts. He doesn't ask you to sign for six years or four years or one year one month. He says look I want to earn it every single week and that's what they do at SuperSource. They come in and they earn it every single week. Isn't it about time that your dish machine and chemical company care about your business? I love seeing Jason in my restaurants every

02:00single week. It's like seeing a good friend come in. He helps me. He comes up with ideas for me. I've never known so much about my dish machine and chemical business but you know what my P&L notice is and my dishes notice. I've got beautiful looking product. It's just it's just amazing. You guys got to check him out. Go to NashvilleRestaurantRadio.com. Click the sponsor tab and click on SuperSource. He's got specials. If you're a Nashville Restaurant Radio listener he has a special offer for you. So if you go click that link and get a hold of him tell him you heard him on Nashville Restaurant Radio and I think you get a little something special. So thank you Jason. You've been an amazing partner. We love having you here at Nashville Restaurant Radio. Visit their website today. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. The tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City! Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host. I'll be joined with Jen Ichikawa here as we get into an amazing interview with Courtney Vrablich. Courtney is the executive director at The Store. If you don't know what The Store is, it is a free grocery store on 12 South in the Belmont area and it is brainchild of Brad and Kimberly Paisley and she is the one who runs it. She makes the whole thing happen and I tell you what this is this is why I do this podcast. Today's episode is why I wanted to do this because without this podcast I don't think I know if I would have ever met Courtney but she has been a fan. She's definitely been a friend and somebody that I've been so interested in interviewing because her outlook on things is really unique and really special and I think that if we

04:02had more people like Courtney in this world it would be a much much much better place. I've enjoyed this conversation and this is fun conversation with Jen too. This is another thing this reason why I love Jen. She's so she's so in tune with everything we talked about today and homelessness and food insecurity and what we can do about it and exactly what she is doing about it over at The Store is what you're gonna learn today. So this is a it's a fantastic interview and we we love that you guys are are here for it. So let's jump in right now with Courtney Vrablich. All right we are super excited today to welcome in Courtney Vrablich and she is the executive director at The Store. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio Courtney. Hey, thanks for having me. This is really exciting because you've been somebody who podcast for a long time and I've got to meet you and we actually went and saw the Roadrunner movie together. We had the extra tickets and you said I'm in dude let's do it. I actually yeah I actually was uh I was on a road trip and you said you had tickets and I was like I zoomed down I was I was in New York and I was like tickets I'm going. My luggage was still in the car it's like you only live once let's go. I had no idea. Yeah he loves that so much. I was just like great I was like no it was it was so much fun what I've heard so much about that movie since then have you have you watched it again by any chance? I have I have I'm like a glutton for punishment because the thing about that movie is that makes you feel all the feelings and every time I go back and watch it it's kind of

06:04like you know like pushing a bruise so. Did you see that movie? No I never got to see it and I wanted to so badly. My husband and I tried I think three times and every time they would be like oh sorry we're sold out now. That's right you guys went to go see it a few times you just did. Yeah we just could never get in. Man I remember watching that and like and I love Anthony Bourdain so much but it just was so sad to see like just what he went through and how lonely he was. Right right. All these people around everywhere like he was just kind of alone. We we never really well you know the thing is is that for all of us who were fans there was that feeling that we somehow knew him personally there was that connectivity because he was genuine even in all of the you know the pain and the you know the hidden stuff and I think that that's what made him accessible to you know a regular person. But yeah no I remember you know the day he died I called off work. I went hiking. I couldn't you know because it felt personal. Yeah that was a sad one. I reread his book that day Kitchen Confidentially. I read it a ton of times and that was the day I was like I have to start this Yeah yeah absolutely. I had that massive moment when I think I read the next book.

07:26I don't know what book I don't remember the title of what it was. The book after Kitchen Confidentially and he said it's so funny because people walk up to me at all these events. I'm like signing books and they hand me like they'll reach in they'll shake my hand they'll hand me like a bag of white powder and I'm like what is like why are you giving this to me? He's like hey man you know you're one of us kind of a thing like you know no no no no no no the whole Kitchen Confidentially wasn't a book about like how to do the restaurant thing it was a whole book about like what not to do like I live this crazy life is I'm an addict I got out of it like I made it out right like my book wasn't a you should go out and do a bunch of coke and like no the whole thing is like I did that don't do that like maybe you can learn from my experiences and that blew my mind because I always looked at the book as like yeah man like he's the he's the captain of the pirate ship and yeah yeah yeah that romanticized version of like the gritty hard Lou Reed esque yeah backside of you know what goes on in the back of the house kind of a thing and like you know it wasn't a it wasn't intended to be the glorification of that it was like you know and this wrecked me and yeah to me it was all matter of fact like that scene that scene in kitchen confidential where he's describing the whole service that is like maybe one of the best I like I'm an avid reader and I love that scene so deeply because it's just so fast it's just one after the other after the other it's just and he I listen to him read it a lot I love audiobooks and so even when he's reading it because he's he narrates it it's just it keeps going and going and going and I'm like oh my god like anybody ever wants to know what it's like like just read that one chapter yeah you instantly pick up that that that sense of adrenaline yeah the kind of adrenaline that you get when you're you know you're on the line and you're in the weeds and your turn in the house and yeah all of that and and you can't help but feel like you are right there in it and that that's the power of good

09:28writing but it's also you know that relatability factor yeah I love listening to books I like to read too but like listening to books I just listen to the Dave Grohl book the storyteller but hearing Dave Grohl read it all the voice inflections and he does like he's talking about something he'll kind of do an impression about that person while he's doing it you reading it I imagine you don't you can kind of envision Dave Grohl's voice inflexing and changing but sure actually hearing him tell the story makes it to me so much better I like it more when it's read by the author same with Anthony Bourdain hearing him tell the story makes it come to life oh absolutely and you know like I'm a I'm a physical book kind of person I like to have the physical book of things and and you know I like to hold on to that I get the next room over my entire like family room is just lined with bookshelves I hoard books but you know what tough it's part of the package the joy of being a single person like I I'll have as many books as I want he says emphatically that's right can't get her leave it but hearing you guys describe like what it is to listen to the audiobook it's kind of like well maybe I need to do both like audio books are great I I love them because when I well when I was doing inventory bar manager I would like just throw on a book or a podcast and that was now that I have toddlers that are twins that are one if they're sleeping I don't get a lot of chances to like sit and read yes listen so now they're great like now they're just the only way I read these days well I think it's much like you know the way that we've learned to make space for podcasts in our lives you know it's it's that same sort of thing I'll put on a podcast while I'm cooking dinner and you know the kids are like okay but I'm like listen you know in in my house

11:32growing up it was you know we had to listen to the to the nightly news you had to listen to the national news and you have to listen to that to the local news so my version of it is now you know you're gonna have to listen to a podcast about some rando thing right it's the same kind of thing we mix we haven't learned to slow down we just learned to include extra layers to our sensory perceptions and so for for me it's you know being able to have that audio in the back yeah one of these wins bless you I've got three but fortunately they all came at separate times well three is like I can't be outnumbered like I'm so that's impressive to me I'm like two like no everyone is always like oh are they your first I'm like yep first and last we're good like that's it and of that story and when you know you know but listen there's something about like when you get to like that second one is actually the hardest I would add that third one to it and it's like you're already in it you're already rolling with it and like they learn to take care of each other it's they are ready for you touch and go if I added another person I'm like that might be a little too loose like I don't know if I can rein that in at all I feel what you're saying Courtney when I had my first child like the first year was like holy shit like what like what did we get ourselves is real and this is hard and I don't communicate that well and I learned that really fast that yeah dude you got to talk and then when the second one came like three months into it I was like do we do we really ever complain about one of them like this is like exponentially harder when you have one that's running around while you're trying to do this stuff with the newborn oh it was insane my first you know she had a late diagnosis but my first is actually autistic okay so my perception of what parenthood was gonna be was based off of my first kid who never

13:35slept unless I held her and had to walk her the whole time and I was still working as a pastry chef at that time so working nights coming home taking care of her during the day sleep in 45 minutes you know like that whole thing and then you know five years later we added the second one because I felt like I was finally ready like we're gonna do this let's go ahead I'm in a space mentally where I'm ready and the second kid was totally different nobody tells you like they don't just because you're taking the same genetic material and creating some totally different person totally different sleep habits and and personality and everything and so you know at that point by the time we added the third who was a surprise it was just like yeah I mean whatever the world of dice let's go with it yeah yeah I just like I'm so scared I'd have twins again like I'm oh yeah no that's a whole that's a whole other that's and I'm like I can't that's a professional grade parenting level that most of us cannot possibly I just couldn't do it I'm like no we're good okay so I'm gonna I'm gonna steer I'm steering the ship here I'm gonna take I'm gonna put us back on course for a second sorry sorry sorry I could talk I could we could do this for hours I really could we could but I want I want to hear your story I want to hear more about you because being the executive director at the store and what is is a really really cool place but let's go back like are you a native Nashvilleian like what is your what is your where do you come from I originally am from Pennsylvania okay so and and I'm gonna point out something to you because I was listening to Andrew's interview last night from Argos yes and and there was some point in the conversation where he was trying to talk about something about y'all and yin's and so I'm gonna clear yeah no it's yin's y'all gotta get

15:35this right I need to tell you how this works it's it's yin's and that's a Pittsburgh thing so sentence like you just literally replace y'all yeah with yin's so like how are yin's yeah and if you're from Pittsburgh you're a yinzer Wow there's a other regional dialect in the southwestern side of Pennsylvania and and that's it's yin's I listen to Howard Stern and they always say like up there they say we're waiting online like if you're in line some like I would say I'm standing in line right they say we're standing online yes and I always know like like on the internet like what are you doing like what is this no we're just standing online waiting for a beer and I'm like you're standing on how don't get that I don't know all different dialect yeah there's a whole other you know I say Crick instead of Creek I don't say Warsh but if you hear Warsh that's a that's a Pittsburgh thing yeah what are you trying to say wash wash oh you know wash my car yeah yeah I do know that from Howard I don't know yeah it's a whole it's got its own so so I'm from northwest Pennsylvania I grew up just south of Lake Erie okay snowbelt rural Amish country more cows than people that whole thing and that's where I grew up I got married very young and on our first anniversary we moved down to Murfreesboro and my husband at the time was enrolled to go to Middle Tennessee State how old were you at this time like 18 like 21 22 okay yeah I knew everything at that point so I was ready to sign on for life it's so funny cuz I also knew everything at that age it's

17:36amazing we were like that I knew I had I had experienced everything I was ready to sign on to be a lifer like I you know I was clearly at the end of my life at that point so I have failed because now I'm 42 I'm twice that age and I feel like I know less than when I was 21 like I am nowhere close yeah I'm 44 at this point and I know nothing and my kids can attest to that because now that they're teenagers they're really they're well they're they're they're willing to tell me that you know on a daily basis I can't wait for that day oh it's coming wait but it's true and you know there's some comfort in being able to say wow like there's so much more out there that that I you know I know nothing and and that's it's a comfortable space to be in like I'm you know I'm ready for that but yeah no so we moved down here and my husband got a recording industry music degree like you do and that at the same time I was working for Aramark I was the executive pastry chef at Middle Tennessee State so I did campus dining oh yeah and I was there for about five years and I went to MTSU so there's a what was the main that the whole thing is changing now I'm trying to think oh yeah I haven't been down there for a while so the bakery at MTSU we had a full-scale bakery we were one of the few scratch bakeries that was still in campus dining in in the southern region and we did probably fifty percent of what we were producing for the campus and catering services and everything was was scratch baking oh that's awesome yeah it was it was pretty intense so and we were in the back of like be like Macaulay dining if anybody's down on that campus so it's just this one long room and then I had a donut fryer

19:41outside the door and you had to be careful because if it was cold it was like right next to the loading dock and it's like you know your fat would freeze over and it was it was insane it was real rogue but at the time like outside of everything that we were producing for the campus which was I think they were like at that time there was like 15,000 20,000 students that was about the time I was there really I mean if you're two years older than me I mean I went to tissue and I was like I waited a year before I went okay so I mean I don't know how old you are if you're 22 23 I would have been I would have been about 23 24 about the time that I signed on for that it's probably right before you were there yeah okay okay yeah so yeah and then catering at that time was like a 1.3 million dollar contract on top of that Wow yeah that's huge yeah yeah it was a lot it was a lot of fun I got to and you know you get to meet interesting people because of it especially on the catering side of things so that would have been around the time that like Al Gore had lost the election and so he came on as a as a visiting professor for the campus and so we had a standing thing where he liked my my creme brulee and so anytime he was coming in he would he put a pre-order in for for creme brulee and I knew he was you know stopping by that sort of stuff and then anytime they would have the concerts and stuff you were part of the the catering ticket for what it was that the the artists were gonna be eating that's cool I saw Pearl Jam at the Murphy Center in 1994 and it was the best it was like the most amazing thing I cried like I was like so big in the program they came on and I was just I remember like tears like yes like that women when the Beatles came on it was kind of my yeah

21:41Steve Cropper came out during that show nobody cares about any of this stuff Steve Cropper came out during the show and they sang sitting on the dock of the bay at the concert and to this day it is the only time Pearl Jam has ever sang that song and all the shows they've ever done they've only done sitting on the back of the bay one time and you got to be there for it they have it on I have the the actual audio of it it was a really pretty cool moment honestly if you go to school in Tennessee and you don't have some great musical memory like were you really here come on exactly so your pastry chef there you're MTSU and you're married and you're what do you get into next what's your next foray in the industry so the next thing that happened was we took a little sidestep back up to Pittsburgh my husband wanted to go to law school so he got accepted at Pitt and we moved up and I took a transfer through Aramark to Duquesne University which is a private Catholic University up up in Pittsburgh I did that for about a year and that was probably the hardest job I've ever had really well it's totally different kitchen culture and I stepped in to a bakery where all of the all of the guys had been there for a long time and they had all like they were all enough to be my dad and kind of resented the fact that I walked in and was management that kitchen was really unusual too because if you are hourly you were union if you were management you were not oh that's a tough place for young leader to be in yeah yeah it was intense it was intense and you know that was the kind of kitchen where you know a lot of rough grizzled old chefs that would throw pans of hot food at you if they were pissed

23:42off and I got I got backed into corners a lot and that was that was really the only kitchen I can say seriously where I experienced true harassment so it was it was intense there are a couple of things that you know there was like a shooting on campus that I missed by by six muffins I tell that story um it was it was just so really that was a rough job I can imagine what when why did what it would happen when you left there was it like a ceremonious like no no that one was it was just such a relief I put in a year I gave it a year and it was just you know I just I put in my letter quietly and I walked out the door and the other guy that I was co-managing the bakery with called me up and he was like I didn't I didn't realize that you were leaving and I said listen I I took this job because I'm trying to pay the bills just like everybody else you know I'm trying to take care of my family I never stepped into this with the intention of stepping on your shoes and he goes why I thought they hired you on to replace me and I was like dude I'm here because my husband's in law school like I'm not saying there's not and he goes so I just spent this whole last year making your life hell and an asshole oh yeah well and he was the guy that was like you know he had daughters and he was all the time talking about how proud he was of a woman and everything and I told him I said listen out your daughters are gonna go into the workforce and they're gonna deal with guys like you so if nothing else learn from the fact that you know women in the workplace are just trying to pay the bills too we're not here to you know we're we want to be part of the team well I think that insecurity as a leader I'm constantly looking for the person that can replace me I want to hire

25:44somebody who's as good as me they can do the job like I don't I want to I want talent on my team because that's how you execute at a really high level and to be a leader like well you're coming in to take my like just that insecurity and then to take that out on somebody for a year and then to say that out loud to say oh I thought you're coming for my job so I was a total dick like you could have had that conversation on day two yeah you could have said hey I feel I'm feeling look is you're really good at your job I'm feeling a little insecure that did they hire you to take over my job because you're great that's a big awareness of feelings though and like that's I mean you you have that now but you wouldn't have had that no even four or five years ago you know it's that's so hard to to actually admit to self and then admit to others well part of like true leadership is being able to be vulnerable and also be able to say you know I am replaceable mm-hmm yeah the moment that you create this space for yourself where you feel like you are irreplaceable you're not working with the team anymore you're not leading you're out there for yourself yeah and and everything that you're creating is is to make you feel good and prop you up that's not leadership that's not building a legacy not at all and so you going through that they only you know they always say like through these really tough experiences you you get calluses but you grow what's the thing what's the most important thing that you took out of that that you've taken on to the rest of your like what is the because you learn everything from these experiences oh absolutely well you know obviously like just what it is that we were talking about like what what leadership should look like how you want to make your team with you instead of you having to be front of the pack and being the center of attention and and you know that it's all about you that's not leadership that's not building a team that's not legacy and that's not it that's not appreciating the skills and abilities that somebody else brings when

27:47they walk in the door yeah and just that level of like making sure that you're touching base with with everybody that you're working with on what their comfort level is because like in that that setting there was a really corporate setting it was a major company oh yeah and and you weren't really allowed to be a human being you were there to be a machine there's a system in a process for every single thing you do throughout the day every minute of your day there's a process for it yeah there's not a lot of I got to think outside the box and how to solve this it's oh no look at page 12 that's how you solve it right everything that you'd airmark me in a company like that yeah yeah and don't get me wrong they were really great you know company in general to work for like I appreciate the opportunity I learned a lot yeah there were a lot of great chefs that that came along beside me and and you know were willing to mentor me and and you know teach me and help me grow and give me opportunities that particular placement was real bad and what it led me to do was then jump out into small cafes and small private bakeries and privately owned small business it you know I kind of just decided to do the opposite in terms of the business side of things and that was that was a fantastic experience too I mean sometimes your paycheck would bounce but you got to be creative and you know you got to try new things and there was a lot more value placed on you as a human being you could bring your personality with you and that was really important because those were opportunities where they wanted your your creative drive and they wanted your personality to be a part of what it was that was being created and I love that yeah that's I think that's something I should strive for I want that every day like that's just something that that makes independently owned and operated restaurants unique absolutely absolutely and you know just the characters that you end up bringing in the door what's

29:48going on in the back of the house and who those people are those people become your family they do I feel fortunate enough to know this podcast I get to bring a bunch of those people back on and tell some of those stories is a lot of fun yeah absolutely absolutely yeah no those were great experiences what brought you back to Nashville so back to Pittsburgh now you're when did you come back so we came back the economy crashed 2008 2009 right right as he was graduating from law school and so his his job offers got pulled nobody was hiring young lawyers everybody was paring down their their workforces and if you didn't already have a client list they didn't really need you you were just dead weight so he had had a job offer for him in Pittsburgh that got pulled and we were like let's go back to Nashville he had a buddy from college who had also gone to law school someplace else and so they decided they were gonna you know make their own firm and we we loved Nashville after after you live here you go someplace else then you realize like what is so great about being here what was that what if you could describe that thing what would it be oh what was the allure of Nashville it's the hospitality it's that you know and and you know this was back this was back at the you know the beginning of the 2000s so it was just the fact that you could smile at somebody and not have them be like you know what yeah just that you know it still had that small town vibe to it it still was like a warm and friendly place and you were still welcome there I think we're kind of moving into this change right now where I was gonna say do you think we're losing that I'm really afraid that we are mm-hmm I really am especially now that I'm in the nonprofit side of the

31:52food industry I can't wait to get into that yeah so especially when we start talking about what you know what homelessness looks like and what affordable family housing looks like and who's getting pushed out and and yeah so there's there's some aspects that I think are changing in and not great way I'm concerned about I guess well I think we should I think we should definitely get into that really like let's I don't want to like zoom through your life I think that's a major thing that's going on that I don't think has talked about enough and I think your perspective is really right there in the middle of it right yeah well so the reason that it's on the forefront of my brain right now is in this last week and I don't know if anybody else has seen these announcements maybe it's just important to me but some of the nonprofits in the area are closing down the ones that deal specifically with hunger in the homeless community and some of the less well-funded organizations that have been here and have been plotting through and have been really doing the work they're their real estate the land that they're on the has been has been sold out from underneath them so the little pantry that could which has been operating for about 12 13 years now they're shutting down in March who is it who'd you say the little pantry that could a little pantry that could they're up in North Nashville and that's just about gosh just an amazing organization that basically was the the brainchild of this woman Stacey who really has a heart for the homeless population and when I say it has a heart doesn't just like you know create an organization where people can come and get food she created an organization where she goes out into the encampments and sits down and has face-to-face conversations with people and has built trust and has built consistency and has given you know a place and a voice and you know a place

33:57where people can come get showers and do their laundry and get fed and talk to other people and just you know let their shoulders drop for a minute and feel safe and this this push in Nashville to erase homelessness without solving the the cause of it the root cause of it is is just heartbreaking because they're going through and raising all of these campus encampments because people are getting upset about seeing the homeless people if they don't see them they don't exist oh yeah there was a meeting not too long ago and I'm not gonna name but it was a city government meeting and a city official got up and had the nerve to say that that Nashville doesn't have a homeless problem I would do that yeah that's I would yeah yeah so you know as we have people moving in and they don't understand who these people are or why they're there or even what our homeless people are like it's just it's a different it's very upsetting to me it's very upsetting to me well so you know little pantry that could is shutting down open table is in trouble right now and that's a real estate issue as well they're losing their spaces because those spaces are getting sold to developers and so you know there's a couple of shelters that are shutting down there's a couple of pantries that are shutting down and a lot of it comes back down to the real estate grabs that are going on big white houses condo condo condo condo all for 600,000 or more oh I mean listen bargain price I'm

36:00still renting oh we are too we're I told you twins and my mom is with us right now five of us in a two-bedroom two-bath because like the idea of buying there's nothing that's worth the cost they're asking I mean you know I'm a I'm a single mom with three kids and I'm out in the suburbs right now and I've been renting a space but you know anytime that the landlord decides that that it's worth it to sell it because I mean that the value of the house is more than doubled in the last ten years since we've been here so what part of town do you live in I'm out in the weird space that's not quite Smyrna off of Haywood we're not Smyrna we're not Antioch we're we're just kind of out there in the I feel I'm not Bellevue I'm not Franklin I'm just kind of in this we are not Fairview I'm just kind of in this weird little area too that's none of that yeah yeah yeah but so let's the store let's talk about the stores I think a little bit how you're so knowledgeable about this issue and I want to get back to it but let's talk about the store how did you hook up how'd you link out how did you Brad Paisley is he decided to start the store with his wife Kimberly right right and it's based off a store in California Santa Barbara yeah and a Barbara the unity stores that was called unity shop yeah you shop and then they brought it to Nashville tell tell us about that okay where do we start okay so whatever you want um I guess it's gonna make more sense if I go chronologically we are gonna take a short break so I can tell you about Sitex Sitex is celebrating 60 years of service you can go right now to their YouTube channel and subscribe but you can also take a virtual tour of their facility and I don't know about you but I'm always interested in really cool things like that a linen factory how does that work the virtual tour is

38:03really really cool lots of other videos on there there's a video that might contain this podcast in my nuts so go check some out and see what you think they are also right now have a brand new mesh back oil resistant chef shirt it is absolutely amazing it's moisture wicking and it is something that every chef in the city every line cook needs and you can only get it through Sitex you need to give Ross Chandler a call at two seven zero eight two three twenty four sixty eight or visit them at sitex-corp.com you know I also want to talk about Sharpier's bakery Erin Mosso took over for her dad seven years ago after he passed away and he originally started 36 years ago serving the Nashville restaurant community fresh baked bread delivered daily it kind of sounds perfect doesn't it and they are local locally owned woman-owned company that you could definitely support today Erin Mosso said she told me said have them call my cell phone six one five three one nine sixty four fifty three because I'd love to just talk to anybody who's thinking about fresh bread who'd like to have fresh bread she wants to bring you samples she wants to talk about what you're currently doing she is in it to help you win and it's amazing I use them in both of my restaurants and she just does the best job so check them out at Sharpier's.com that's C-H-A-R-P-I-E-R-S.com and follow them on the socials at Sharpier's bakery and that's Sharpier's.com do it okay so I came back to Nashville and the economy had crashed and I was five months pregnant with our second kid so big as a house and my husband was trying to find clients so that he could pay the bills and I couldn't get hired because it looked like I was gonna give birth in aisle three at any moment and so we had to go on

40:08assistance we had to go on on snap we had to go on WIC we had ten care for our daughter and and you know all of that and so that began my foray into what it was to utilize public assistance and and you know kind of dispel all of the stereotypes that I had grown up with of who utilizes these services and why and and how the whole thing works and then be on the receiving end of all of the stigma that goes with that so being in a grocery store getting your groceries you got it you know a toddler with you you're sticking out to next Tuesday and you got your groceries and you pull out your EBT card and suddenly you know the people in the line behind you have thoughts about what it is that you're buying and and God forbid that it be you know anything that they don't deem necessary because now they feel that they are paying for your groceries and so they have a right to say something to you and that was just a you know this ongoing thing and if anybody's ever used WIC vouchers WIC vouchers are very specific as to what it is that you can purchase and the weight and the amount and the size and you know the brand and everything and for the sake of your cash year you know if you're smart you'll line it all up in in accordance to how the voucher is broken down so that they can scan it and God help you if you go over or you don't have the right brand or anything it's very it's a very complicated system potentially embarrassing massively yeah I mean massively and I got to the point where you know my anxiety was so high because of it that I would start grocery shopping in the middle of the night my anxiety hearing you tell that story I'm like you know I don't yeah if you know if you're ever in a situation where you're out in public and you're aware of

42:10the people around you and the way that they feel if you're on empath in any way shape or form and you know that you are holding somebody up or making somebody uncomfortable or making some of you do extra labor you know then yeah all of that that builds that tension and that sense of anxiety and stuff so I would I would start grocery shopping at two and three and four o'clock in the morning because just for me I would just there were just times where I would just shut down and so this went on for like ten years Wow and in amongst that time then I had gotten divorced and had gone back to work because I had been a stay at home mom who was trying to support my husband's career and we had had a surprise third child and so I was just trying to manage the household and make his career possible and navigate the behind-the-scenes managerial things that go on and in running a household so we got divorced and I went back to work and so the first thing that I did was I tried to find a job that was you know real flexible and accommodating and so I went to work for Amazon and that was a really surprisingly fantastic opportunity for all of the stories that we hear about what's going on behind the scenes with Amazon and all of those things and I won't even get into that it what it did create for me was the opportunities to climb and to create a stable household for my kids and be financially secure and so that was actually when I was able to get us off of any kind of assistance and and not need snap and not need the EBT card and and get them insurance and be able to do that and so within the three years that I was with Amazon I started out as an associate part-time and I left as an L4 manager Wow and that's just about grabbing the opportunities as they come

44:14so but so the funny thing about that was so I just taken a new promotion with Amazon it was November of 2019 and I was flipping through something and an indeed ad came up not to be like you know use indeed it works but this this is how I happen this ad came up and it was a job opening for a new nonprofit in Nashville and all it said was that it was a free grocery store to help assist families in need and you know address nutritional insecurity and that there was like this whole new model that they wanted to do and it didn't say who was starting it and it didn't say where it was and it you know none of that just nonprofit free grocery store and they were looking for an operations manager and so I was like I just took this great promotion I've got stock options now with Amazon I have worth something a little bit listen I had insurance that specifically addressed the fact that my daughter has autism hmm like I was that's hard to give up yeah you know I mean what what is the temptation with corporate work it's the fact that they're big enough that they can really fully give you like the benefits and that you know those support structures and it's great yeah um so it was one of those things though where it was like I couldn't stop talking about it and my friends were getting to the point where like they were like listen either apply for this job you know one or the other because like we are done talking about this with you like you're trying to like sell all of us to apply for it and really you're the one that has all of the qualifications you apply for it I love what my wife does that she goes stop selling me just go fucking do it yeah she's right through my heartbeat yes so

46:20home that comment so I I sent in an application I sent in a resume and you know I I grew up in retail I knew food service I understood hospitality understood customer service you know I had all of these things and and I you know I cared in the end user experience sounds like yeah and you know I kind of I kind of went into that a little bit on my resume but I didn't really you know there's not a real space for hey I used to be a you know kind of thing on there but just you know listen I'm interested in this this is intriguing to me so three days later they gave me a call so okay it you got to remember it with November and December are top tier level 16 hour a day peak because you're you're doing all of the holiday rush and so there was like an hour that I would have a break in between shifts that was my lunch and they're like come in and do an interview and I was you know like I got this call from the store and and a couple of board members and they're like just come in and do an interview we'd love to talk to you you know we're trying to get the ball rolling on this thing and get open and so you know here's our time frame you know can you come in so I snuck out lunch you know because the deal is you know you don't want your bosses knowing that you're that you're looking around it's like getting caught cheating and that's really what it felt like that it felt like I was being unfaithful so I snuck out and I met with a couple of board members and they were fantastic and you know they got into they wanted to know the motivations for what it was that I had applied and did I know anything about nonprofit work and you know that sort of stuff and so I just you know I broke it down for him I explained to him what my experience had been as a mom and being on the receiving end of different services and what that felt like and just the fact that I felt ready as a human being to find a way to give back like I wanted to do something that was a little more important than just make

48:23sure that people's Amazon packages got delivered to them so I left went back to work finished my shift got out to the car and there was a message waiting on my phone and it was one of the one of the individuals that I had met with earlier in the day and basically the gist of it was hey we think you're great but would you consider the executive director position instead of the operations position I basically called back and asked them if they had called the wrong number and if they were crazy Wow are you nuts and I said you know you're taking a big risk I've never done any of this so not only have I not ever worked for a nonprofit but like you want me to the helm the ship like all right you know are you crazy that's the only response that there is for that sort of thing we talked it over and they were just the the thing about having an organization where there's a board of leaders is that what what we have is a board of visionaries you have people who have gotten to a point in their career their profession and their vocations where they have they have had both successes and failures and they have enough experience to have vision yeah and so that's really what my board is and so for them to put the faith in me to take the risk to start a new organization with a brand new leader that's a lot what's that you're the integrator yeah yes so so I had about five interviews total with the organization because you got to meet

50:25committees and you gotta meet different you know and everybody has their own angle on what it is that they're hoping that this organization is going to do amongst that I'm sitting in a meeting one day with the executive committee and I'm in a building downtown and I hear the door open on the side and somebody comes rushing into the room with a hood on and sits down at table sorry I'm late pulls his hood back and it's Brad Paisley and you're like okay so that's who the founders are because we had gotten into this whole thing and nobody really mentioned where it was coming from I was two or three meetings in before I realized that it was Brad and Kim Paisley that were kind of the motivation behind all of this so okay so that's how I got in the reason that the in the first place is Brad and Kim have worked in various areas of and I don't want to use the word charity I hate that word but nonprofit work and social programs and community supports they you know both grew up in small towns and they still have that heart for various community organizations so there was a holiday where they were out on the West Coast and you know what how they tell the story and I wasn't there so I can't confirm but how they tell the story is the boys were acting up and they were being kind of a pain in the butt and Kim kind of was like listen we we need to get them plugged in and give them some perspective and just on on where they stand and what their privilege is and how how blessed they really are little wake-up call so they asked around

52:25somebody pointed them to the Unity shop and said here go volunteer here you know it's a really great organization they've been there for a hundred years there's this woman Barbara Tolson she'll get you plugged in and so what it was was this free grocery store out in Santa Barbara that has it's not just a grocery store they've got clothing they do toys they do toiletry they do they do they just they have this block of space and you know it's all volunteer labor but it's set up like a retail situation okay so it's not a food pantry like you go in and somebody hands you a box of food and you walk out you'd actually do the shopping you do the shopping you grab a cart you you go and pick what it is that you want and you know it's a fully staffed kind of retail setup but everybody there is a volunteer and there's there's their cash register but the food is free you know there's just it's this whole thing it's a very normalized experience yeah and so they were just blown away by this whole concept of the whole thing because Kim had grown up delivering meals on wheels with her mom and they had worked soup kitchens together and you know they had seen that side of the pantry experience or the pantry but like the like the food community shelter kind of concept that everybody is kind of seen one way or another so they really just got plugged in they started asking questions they started you know repeat volunteering that sort of thing and around 2017 they were like why are we not doing this in Nashville this is our hometown this is where we live like I don't want to have to keep waiting until we have a trip out to LA to have a chance to plug in and do this we need this here so started gathering up people who were in the food industry one way or another

54:26people who had experience with nonprofit work industry leaders visionaries friends and started organizing what this concept was going to be and what it would look like and you know I mean the important thing about what they did was they recognized that just because the organization looks a certain way out in Santa Barbara you got a tailor food and service and and your outreach to the community that you're in yeah so you know what what you see at the store is going to be a little bit different than what you see at unity shop but the inspiration is is there and so they shopped around for some locations and they settled with not settled that's a terrible word that's not what I mean they found a great spot on 12th South they found a great spot on 12th South that was owned by Belmont because Brad is a Belmont University alum okay I did not know that yeah so Brad went to dr. Fisher and said listen here's the idea that I have but also I want to tie it into the fact that Belmont University students have to have a certain amount of volunteerism credits in order to graduate and I remember volunteering and I remember not really always getting a whole lot out of it and I would like to offer a different experience for the student body and a different opportunity and I want to do it you know in a in a place that's really close to the campus so that they can just be here all of the time and kind of integrate into this opportunity and dr. Fisher greenlit it and we built a brand new building on Belmont's campus and we lease that space from them right now and you know if anybody is down in that area you'll see there's massive construction going on on Belmont University's campus we kind of slipped in before all of those big projects got greenlit so we have this little pocket of space that you know used to be a parking lot and we're kind of lucky to be in that area right now so that's how

56:32that whole like why we're there and and what the background of how the organization got got organized and formulated Wow so that's a that's a lot and Jen what are your thoughts even said much here what do you got I know my kids are quacking in the background so it's I'm sorry um they learned how to say quack the other day so much better than no yeah they haven't learned that word in any capacity um but no I I love that I know are you do you know your anagram I'm an eight you're an eight so is Brandon Raiders unite yeah I'm a four and I feel like I'm always searching for purpose and I always I hate being misunderstood like those are the real traits of mine that really and so listening to your story I'm in a transitional phase right now and listening to your story is just really like you found the rainbow right like you went through all of this kind of gnarly situations and tough things and you you pulled yourself up and then you found the thing that was right for you where you can tell you feel a real sense of purpose and you can tell that you really love what you do and you love the community that you serve and I I agree with you I remember I used to work at Disney World and I never saw a homeless person like they're not on they're not in Kissimmee Florida at all and or Celebration Florida either and so then I would go back to school in Tallahassee where there are and you really are just a few decisions away from that like nobody is so far removed from that and I think people don't understand that fragility in our day-to-day lives of like you could be here you have to you know and especially growing up in the south and in Nashville here and in the Bible Belt and things like that the idea of like this is Jesus right like this is what he came as these are the people you serve this is how you do it you wash feet you feed the hungry you love sex workers like all of

58:35these things and they I love that there for all the nonprofits closing which is awful there are so many popping up to it they're trying to serve really niche markets and I just I hope that we're getting to a place where we're seeing the value in all lives and not just the dollar amount that they can produce and create into society and we're just seeing them as humans and so I love that you feel that way and you see that and I love that Brad Paisley and Kim does too like that's that's a special thing that I don't I think should be an inherit trait and for people and is not yes yes yes yes yes amen preach it sister here's the thing like okay the whole aspect of how close anybody is like when you said a couple decisions away from being in a bad situation a lot of times there are not even decisions that we make it's right on me it's you know so when the pandemic hit we had this whole other group of individuals especially from the entertainment industry and the hospitality industry that were suddenly without any means of supporting themselves in a town that you never in a million years would have thought that that would happen that you would ever lose your job in you know partnering with with CMA because they have all of these people from you know the studios and the recording industry that no longer have any work and no gigs to go to because nobody's touring and needing to make sure that they're fed you know just there has been this kind of reawakening on on certain people's radar of how quickly you can go from being financially secure and stable and and able to take care of yourself to needing assistance and those are the people that are turning around and saying okay when I get when I get back on my feet I want to turn around and give back

01:00:36mm-hmm I want to get plugged in I want to be a part of the solution I think there's also this change in mindset that's generational of you know I grew up in church I spent two years in seminary Wow yeah we don't have enough time for that Wow oh yeah there's a lot you know so I grew up with that that you know Bible bell Christian mindset of you're supposed to turn around and serve and now as people are moving away from organized religion and and organized church service and the churches are starting to become smaller and diminish in population and support it's people who are stepping up and saying I see a need in the community and I want to start an organization that addresses this and that's how nonprofits really start it's no longer that we're we're being organized around religious organizations it's starting to be the nones the non denominational non-religious but spiritual individuals in the demographic that are looking at things and saying we need to address this problem because the government can't but we have these people that are falling through the cracks and there's a better way to solve this problem and I'm going to step up I'm going to be the person that fills that gap I'm going to be the person with a vision that creates a space for the people who are underserved Wow you know it's like Kevin the guy who's the director or the owner oh yeah for Big Table for Big Table which is new to Nashville yeah and he was a former he was a preacher yeah I think he saw what you're talking like just the dimension and he channeled what he did and he said I want to go help a specific demographic let's go to restaurants and let's help people let's

01:02:39help people who have mental health issues let's help people who have drug and alcohol addictions let's just let's go in and help them and that's been their mission yeah well and and what it allows like what the power of a small nonprofit is that we get to kind of create our own rules of who it is that we're gonna serve yeah you're not jumping through these giant hoops of these people are okay but we can't take these people because there's a liability issue with the insurance or you know we can't hire on the staff or you know whatever so yeah it's it's it all comes down to an individual who has an opportunity or a vision or sees a need and jumps in and says I can create a space for someone else and take care of them like one of the one of the board members that helped formulate the store is Becca Stevens from Thistle Farms so when you want to talk about somebody who recognizes people's value and their dignity and the need to build a transformable but safe space for them so that they can then have the opportunity to grow and heal and get better and and move on and move up like her her concepts and and her support for our organization was was instrumental in us building a space that promotes self-sufficiency but also protects dignity and that's the whole real underlying mission of the store it's not just hey we want to have a conversation about poverty and it's not just hey we want to make people feel good while they shop it's about providing a space where people's dignity is protected where they can then start to have hope again and that their value as a human being is recognized from the moment that they walk in the door the moment that they

01:04:41no longer need our services and in in all of that you know the programming is designed so that it's not just dignity in that space it's dignity of choice it's it's providing options so that people and then allowing us to normalize these conversations about poverty and who's experiencing it and what people who need these services actually look like versus what we have been told look like I talk about this on a podcast we did we're gonna put out Monday with Corey Coleman just about the alcoholism in my world of being an alcoholic just the perception of people thinking about alcoholic is typically Otis and Mayberry you know this drunk who's in a tank somewhere and it's like no they look like me they look like a bunch of other people around here and this perception is like I just want to open a dialogue to you know just to normalize some conversations that people don't have to be afraid to talk about this stuff it's oh it's okay like let's continue to talk about it well it's like when I needed to apply for stamps I grew up thinking that people who couldn't provide for their own families were lazy and worthless and fell into certain demographics 70% of the people who utilize snap and EBT are working-class white families Wow I didn't know that yeah I didn't have any other preconceived I didn't know what the demographic was the majority of the people who need assistance are families who are trying to balance you know they're trying to be dual income but they have children in the home and they're trying to figure out how to pay for childcare work a job and and you know pay all of the bills and as food costs go up and as housing goes up and as the price of childcare goes up which

01:06:43it has to because those are skilled workers taking care of people's children that have master's degrees and deserve to get paid a living wage do you look at all of those things there's no way really for a family with children to live off of one income and be able to pay all of the bills yeah so the the majority of the people who need additional services are people who are working their butts off trying to make you know ends meet and are one to two paychecks away from being homeless being destitute being in a and that financial insecurity snowballs you know you can't pay your utilities your landlord kicks you out now you're homeless you don't have insurance you know it spirals I've never understood like why they charge you $36 if you bounce a check like the people that don't have the money get don't have that conversation with with a bank you know yeah come on man like I clearly don't have the extra $36 or the extra $112 because I did three different checks that didn't I had the money but you didn't cash my paycheck before you paid my bills you paid my bills and then cash my paycheck so that you could make $36 off of each one of those bounce checks and now I look like an asshole but I'm not you know all the big towers downtown I'll have bank names on the top of them there are people who profit from other people suffering yeah I know but that's my everyday reality yeah number of people who have benefited from this pandemic versus the number of people like that that class divide has only gotten greater so I feel like I don't believe that the problems we're facing countrywide are new I think people are

01:08:47just they're more heightened now because we have access to information and access to other people in a way that we did not back in the day before social media before new 24-hour news cycles and things like that so my best friend works in nonprofit in Florida and I think she's just saintly but I struggle sometimes like I work a few jobs my husband we own a restaurant I have two kids it's a like there's a lot right and there's all of this need out there and sometimes there's so much need that you're like I don't know where to start so how how can people help how can people help the store what can how can people get involved so we have a couple of different types of volunteer opportunities first of all like we love to get people plugged in because until you till you get into the building and and get to work in the space you know it's hard to explain what it is that we're doing or it kind of allows you to have that opportunity to kind of see it firsthand and that's really important so we work through this hands-on Nashville my sister don't you do I her name is Stephanie oh yeah cool that's my sister yeah that's fantastic nice yeah two and okay I get it she's tall I don't think I've seen her outside of like you know the desk but okay well so yeah hands-on Nashville we work with them there's a couple of different types of volunteer opportunities you might not be a people person who wants to be face-to-face with people we have an opportunity where you come in and help us do inventory or you can come in on Wednesdays and help us shelves and clean all of the produce areas and and get prepped for service and then Thursday Friday and Saturday is when we open the doors for our customers

01:10:50to come in and shop so those are opportunities where you are again stock and shelves but bagging groceries running our cash register people think it's funny that we have a register we do there's no money exchanged there's no money on site but you still get a receipt when you leave and we do that for a number of reasons I'm going to some other time and you know just carrying groceries out to the car we have a greeter position where there's somebody that stands at the door and hey how are you and this is where you go you know to fill out your information and hey if your kids want to go play in the children's area or here's a token for the penny pony and they're just and that position is really great because we have had this outpouring of interest from our retired community so this is where the grandmas and grandpas of Nashville have come out and have taken over that position and get to have this interaction with our families and just be warm and welcoming and friendly and I love the people who sign up repeatedly for that particular position they're just they're they're a special group so if you're the type of person that you don't want to buy groceries and you don't want to write a register but you have a great smile and you can be friendly to strangers like sign up for the greeter position I have for half a second there I thought you were gonna say that the grandparent community was the ones riding the penny pony you said then did they give the quarter and that's where the album of people who have ridden Sandy the penny pony taking her for a ride she's pretty sweet it surprised you else jumped on the on the back of that horse it's pretty great I would break it by the way I do like no no no no no we have had some some full-on adults on there it's a friend of like two adults though he's like six like 265 pounds there's like oh my goodness yeah she's tall everyone's

01:12:53so tall I drink my milk I'm a country kid yeah I'm excited to do part two of this interview where we learn your seminary story whole hour that we're gonna do survival college yeah yeah it's a listen I mean in terms of like career vocation job etc etc I've had like 20 or 30 jobs I started working when I was seven so you know everything that I'm doing now pulls from everything that I got to do or had to do in the past and that's what's great about the job that I'm doing right now is everything has a purpose now like it has a use and that's really important to me so they've they say that if you love what you do you'll never work a day in your life and it's leaving the job at Amazon going to this I always want people to finish the day with like a yes I finished I never get because every day I finished in I'm like I have so much shit to do do you ever do you ever like when you leave work now you may still have work to do but it's your heart full like do you just leave and go I love this um I would use it is it a business now to you no oh no I'm the kind of person who loves work in general I love working and so it's really important to me to not settle with the job yeah that I don't love so I'm in this job because I sought this job out because I wanted this job because I knew that I would love it so that's the difference I walked onto the job and six weeks later we went into a pandemic so I'm exhausted but I can't stop I think is maybe the answer to that question like my biggest fault is that I can't stop hoping I am a hopeless

01:14:56romantic in and that's not just a relationship thing that's like that's who I am internally like I am always secretly hoping for that that big moment or that big solution or that that there's gonna be a movie moment that that's gonna happen right and so like it's it's exhausting to hope and so we're moving into year three of pandemic conditions and high demand and and you know now we've talked about you know these these other services nonprofits that are falling apart and can't continue on and so it's it's exhausting but if I give up then who's gonna do this job and the more that I love what it is that I do the more curious I am about what's going on and and how everything ties in together and what the solutions to these problems are and how to integrate the people who have the ability or the case you know the money or the the skill set how do I get them to be as passionate about this as I am let me ask you a question what's the best way like for me who works like 80 hours a week what's the best way for me to donate what's the best way for me if I have money that I've got earmarked to donate to the rescue mission or somewhere where is the best way it's not is it if I stop at a stoplight there's a guy with a sign on this giving him money does that help does it help giving money directly to you does it help like where is the best place for the average listener right now if they don't have time to come donate their time if they just have money and they want to help what should I do with that money I don't okay here's the thing that that's a bigger question um any time you give

01:16:58with the intent of making somebody else's life better do it do it and if your heart is to give you know a hygiene packet to the homeless guy with a five dollar bill attached to it do that absolutely you're making a difference you're not gonna solve his homelessness okay so like you got to look at what it is what is your intention what are you hoping for what is the outcome for that where are you most passionate for me I'm most passionate about food why because food equals love so I'm gonna give love and I'm gonna do it through food because that's a universal need maybe your your love language is giving a shelter giving you know helping the homeless aspect maybe it's it's the healthcare aspect of it maybe it's the education aspect of it figure out what it is it that equals love to you that you are most passionate about find you know jump on the we have an internet Google it read the website of the organization that most fits your passion your interest in your intent figure out what it is that they are specifically asking for and give that so for us you know you go to the store org there's a donate button that money allows us to buy food buy supplies pay a living wage to our staff keep the lights on and and make sure that we are offering you know a quality service to our community maybe you maybe you feel very specifically that it's not money you want to give cleaning supplies we have Amazon wish lists on our thing we have a whole wish list that's just for seasonings because we're trying to teach people how to cook at home or what to do with the items that we're giving them and part of that is spices and seasonings have a flavorful meal have everything that everybody else has when they go into their house like you don't cook without spices and seasonings so why would somebody who's coming to us

01:19:02have to do that so you know there's there's wish lists on there there's volunteer opportunities on there there's you can just donate money you can buy merch we have merch on our site you want a hat you want a shirt you want a water bottle I'm gonna stick around the back of your car that helps get the word out that we exist you know do that if you want to get into addressing the root causes of things vote there you go amen I mean I don't I think drop the mic there I mean vote get out and vote yeah so so important yeah because the grassroots votes the votes for the people who are leading in your community those are the ones that are gonna have the most impact in your actual everyday life and research research what they stand for like do go online and look up the people who are on the ballot and I didn't align with your values yeah for that person don't just I think people yeah it's really easy to vote like we've gotten very partisan yeah this is my team I vote for my team no look for the person who has a value system that aligns with yours otherwise you're voting against yourself mm-hmm and don't vote against your neighbor mm-hmm be for things not against things yeah absolutely well Courtney I know you are familiar with the show I want to say thank you so much for joining us today and we got to do this again we're gonna do this live next time in our new studio that's gonna be ready to go I'm excited for you on this I know I'm using today a new microphone that will be the one in the studio and I can hear my it's the most amazing thing and I have like you know I have sound shiny toys shiny toys it's like it's it's scary I have a scary story to tell

01:21:07you I mean every day when you read the news is a scary story what are you gonna do just like read headlines 240,000 new people are moving to Nashville in the years play that sound anyway so you get to take us out today I don't know if you've thought about your final thought whatever you want to say you know you listen to show you get the end of it and you're like oh what are they gonna say and I figured you'd have like a something prepared today these final thought you get to take us out you're gonna get full screen oh I don't want that and dang I don't know let's go back that is all you introvert introvert I don't need to see my own face yes you do okay Courtney Jerry's final thought take us out all right well as the oldest person in this meeting I want to remind people that that meeting to you yeah a little bit I do this a lot felt like a meeting to her Jen all right good so I'm sorry I took a meeting on Saturday morning you should be you know that was an important meeting that's right it's well this yeah well this is yeah I don't know I guess my whole thing is like don't don't settle don't assume that you have ever arrived to the end of your journey or the place that you're at right now has to be the place that you stay the whole analogy of life is a journey is what nobody tells you is there's no destination you don't you don't ever arrive to a spot and you're like okay and I have I am now here all you really do is level up to the next

01:23:12vista and see the next challenge and take that on and that doesn't mean that you don't find places where you camp out for a little bit and rest and renew and and eat and you know sit around the campfire but if if you ever assume that what you're doing that there's gonna be an endpoint that you miss out on the beauty of the journey because you're anticipating the destination so my whole thing is it's really important that regardless of what it is that I'm doing right now in my career I have no expectations that I'm going to be doing this the same way 20 years down the road I hope I'm not like I continually have things that I want to do next and I want to do next and I want to do next and what that drives me to do is always be curious always be listening to the people around me and what their experiences are because they've been traveling some other path so you know is that the right path for me can I follow that what's your experience let me learn from that and then taking all of those things and and and looking for what the next thing like I said hopeless romantic dreamer like if you don't take chances and try the next new thing you don't get to create a space for somebody to follow behind you and so maybe the journey is you're clearing the path it Brad and Kim started this thing what did it do it created a space for me to come in and say here's what I can offer this every time somebody innovates and does something new they create a space for other people to fill in behind that and learn from it and grow and create a you know the next layer in the next layer we love these heroes journey kind

01:25:16of stories but we keep forgetting that we could we could be that hero too so that's my whole thing if you if you're passionate about something if you want to know what's around the bend go do it like what are you waiting for that's my whole thing wow it was poignant I don't I don't call it irritating because you know if you know you just said yeah I don't think you know how how what you just said just landed so be relentless be relentless Courtney Vrablich thank you so much for spending this Friday morning with us this Friday morning the start off the weekend that was some great advice that you just threw out there just just life doesn't some life stuff you just talked about right there and hopefully other people heard it the way that I heard it and I know Jen heard it so thank you for joining us today yeah thank you this was fun big thank you to Courtney Vrablich for joining the podcast that was fun that was an amazing conversation I learned a lot and I hope that you did too I think that every once in a while to take a step back and think about kind of how blessed you are and the things that you have and or the things you don't have and how you can help I don't know just I think I love thought-provoking conversations I think that was definitely one of them again thank you Courtney for joining us that's it that's it for the weekend have a great weekend and we will be back next week with all new shows hopefully live in studio we're super excited new studio coming at you there we go hope you guys are being safe love you guys bye